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Faduma Salah Musse from Somaliland is 49 years old. She has five children, with whom she fled her home country and has now been living in Australia for more than 15 years.

For more than ten years, Faduma Musse has been working for the local health service in her new hometown of Dandenong in Victoria, Australia. There, she helps educate immigrant women on sexual health, reproductive rights and on female genital mutilation.

Faduma Musse herself was mutilated in Somaliland when she was seven years old, an experience that she says she will never be able to forget. This is why, in addition to her work in Australia, Ms Musse travels to Somaliland regularly to try and raise awareness in local communities. “It is not easy”, she says “We have to push them along, talk to the men and women, because this is something they’ve been doing for a long time. They think if a girl is not circumcised a boy will not marry her, or she will become a prostitute.”